Child Kidnap Suspect Phillip Garrido Now Investigated for Prostitute Murders

Aug. 28, 2009— -- Phillip Garrido sat quiety as he was arraigned today on charges that he kidnapped, raped and imprisoned Jaycee Dugard -- even as police from another jurisdiction began probing Garrido's home for clues to the unsolved murders of area prostitutes.

The bizarre twist came as a clearer picture of Garrido emerged: a man obsessed with his own strange vision of God, who carried around a machine he said allowed people to hear his thoughts, and who was like a "strutting peacock" when it came to the two young girls he fathered with Jaycee Dugard.

The latest shock in the case came when Contra Costa sheriff's Capt. Daniel Terry told the Associated Press that officers were executing a search warrant of the Garrido home in Antioch, Calif., in connection with the murder of prostitutes.

The bodies of several slain prostitutes had been dumped near an industrial park where Garrido, a registered sex offender, worked during the 1990s.

Garrido, 58, and his wife, Nancy, 54, were arraigned separately today on 29 counts of kidnapping, rape and imprisonment charges in relation to the 1991 abduction of Dugard when she was 11 years old.

Garrido sat quietly, looking at photographers as the judge ruled that he would be held without bail. His wife cried several times during her arraignment. Both pleaded not guilty.

The picture that emerged of Garrido is of a man who ran a printing business and did not hide the children he told police he fathered with Dugard, despite allegedly keeping them confined in a backyard jumble of sheds and tents, and never taking them to school or to a doctor.

"They are very, very beautiful blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls," said Timothy Allen, who got his printing from Garrido over the last 10 years.

Allen said Garrido brought the girls around about three times over that period, the last time a year ago.

"He was like a strutting peacock. He was very proud of these two girls," Allen said.

When Allen came over to greet the girls, "They were very shy," he said.

He remembered one of the girls was named Angel and the other girl's name had the word "star" in it, but Allen couldn't remember the name exactly.